Ink Cartridge Satogeaeri (or Project Homecoming) is the first ever unique joint initiative of leading brands – Epson, Brother, Canon, HP, Dell and Lexmark – of printers to recycle ink-and-tone cartridges. This project, launched in Japan in 2008, is to be adopted in Thailand later this year.

In Japan, the multinational printer makers have paid for the recycling of each of the used cartridges which their consumers donate to the recycling cause. Cartridges are collected from strategic collection-points, where bins are placed exclusively for usedcartridge collection, and brought to a plant owned by Epson, at Mizube, near Lake Suwa in Nagano Prefecture for recycling. The Project’s venture was begun by concerned ink-andtoner cartridge manufacturing companies, as they felt it was time to take social responsibility and offer their consumers alternative, environmentalfriendly methods to dispose of used-up ink and toner cartridges. Motonori Okumura, COO, Imaging and Information Products Operations Division, Epson, comments that, “The operating cost many be high but our achievement should not be calculated by financial gains.”

In fact, more than 5 million recycled cartridges have been converted into ‘green products’ such as plastic boxes, pens or flower pots and distributed free-of-cost to needy organizations.

The Project has also donated $US 120,000 to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) by contributing an amount of three yen in lieu of every ink cartridge collected by the project since the middle of 2010.

With cartridge manufacturers in Thailand also adopting the recycling project, the increasing inclination of corporations towards adopting greener, sustainable industrial ecosystems that minimize carbon emissions needs to be highly appreciated.